Although the oldest surviving histories -those compiled in the Book of Documents- seem to date back only to the rise of Zhou Dynasty, the recording of Chinesehistory dates back to the Shang Dynasty. The Spring and Autumn Annals, the official chronicle of the State of Lucovering the period from 722 to 481 BC, is among the earliest surviving Chinesehistorical texts to be arranged as annals (编年史). The compilation ofboth is traditionally ascribed to Confucius. The Zuo Zhuan（Zuo’s Commentary on the Spring andAutumn Annals）, attributed to Zuo Qiuming inthe 5th century BC, is the earliest Chinese work of narrative history andcovers the period from 722 to 468 BC. The anonymous Zhan Guo Ce(or Intrigues ofthe Warring States) was arenowned ancient Chinese historical work compiling sporadic(零星的) materials on the Warring Statesbetween the 3rd and 1st centuries BC.
The first systematic Chinese historical text, the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji),was written by Sima Qian and his father. Due to his highly praised and highlycopied work, Sima Qian is often regarded as the father of Chinesehistoriography(史学). He isoften compared to the Greek Herodotus① in scope and method, as he covered Chinese history from themythical Xia Dynasty up until the contemporary reign of Emperor Wu of Han,while pertaining an objective and non-biased standpoint, which is oftendifficult for the official dynastic histories who used historical works tojustify the reign of the current dynasty. The Twenty-Four Histories, the official compilations of the historiesof those dynasties considered legitimate by the imperial Chinese historians,all copied Sima Qian's format. Typically, the rulers initiating a new dynastywould employ scholars to compile a final history from the annals and records ofthe previous one.
Therewere also large encyclopedias produced in China throughout the ages. The Yiwen Leiju Encyclopedia② was completed by Ouyang Xun in 624 during the Tang Dynasty, withaid from scholars Linghu Defen and Chen Shuda. In the Song Dynasty alone, thecompilation of the Four Great Books of Song③ begun by Li Fang and finalized by Cefu Yuangui represented amassive undertaking of written material covering a wide range of differentsubjects. This included the ExtensiveRecords of the Taiping Era, theImperial Readings of the Taiping Era, theFinest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, and the Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau. Although these Song DynastyChinese encyclopedias featured millions of written Chinese characters each,their size paled in comparison to the later YongleEncyclopedia (《永乐大典》) of the Ming Dynasty, which had a total of 50 million Chinesecharacters. Yet even this size was smaller than later Qing Dynastyencyclopedias, such as the Imperial Encyclopedia(Gujin Tushu Jicheng ,《古今图书集成》). This Qing encyclopediccompilation features over 100 million written Chinese characters in over800,000 pages, printed in 60 different copies using copper-metal Chinesemovable type printing. Other great encyclopedic writers and content include thepolymath(博学) scientistShen Kuo and his Dream Pool Essays,the agronomist(农学家) andinventor Wang Zhen and his AgriculturalTreatise( Nongshu), and the minorscholar-official Song Yingxing and his theExploitation of the Works of Nature（Tiangong Kaiwu）.
Abridgedand revised from
http://www.hwjyw.com/zhwh/content/2009/09/03/668.shtml
